The Nine Most Spoken Languages In The World

Eenie, meenie, miny, moe. Do you know which language is the most spoken language in the world? This is a tricky one because determining the "most spoken" language can be divided into two topics: “Most widely spoken based on native speakers” versus “Greatest total number of speakers.”

If you guessed English, you're on the right track! Along with English, the list includes Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, and more. Is your mother tongue on the list?

English

Native speakers: 372.9 million
Total speakers: 1.452 billion

English is the world's primary global lingua franca. It serves as the foundation for international business and is one of the six official languages of the UN.

Mandarin Chinese

Native speakers: 929 million
Total speakers: 1.118 billion

Spoken by more than 70% of China's population, Mandarin uses four distinct tones to identify syllables: level, rising, falling, and high-rising.

Hindi

Native speakers: 343.9 million
Total speakers: 602.2 million

Written in the Devanagari script, Hindi is one of the two official languages of the Indian government and has been heavily inspired by Sanskrit.

Spanish

Native speakers: 474.7 million
Total speakers: 548.3 million

Spanish is the second-most widely spoken native language globally and is the official language of 20 countries, with the largest community in Mexico.

French

Native speakers: 79.9 million
Total speakers: 274.1 million

French is an official language in 29 countries and remains a key diplomatic language worldwide through the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

Bengali

Native speakers: 233.7 million
Total speakers: 272.2 million

The official language of Bangladesh, Bengali is the fifth most widely spoken Indo-European language in the world.

Russian

Native speakers: 154 million
Total speakers: 258.2 million

The most spoken native language in Europe, Russian is a homogenous language divided into Northern, Southern, and Central dialect groups.

Portuguese

Native speakers: 232.4 million
Total speakers: 257.7 million

According to UNESCO, Portuguese is one of the world's fastest-growing European languages. Speakers are commonly referred to as “Lusophones.”

Japanese

Native speakers: 125.3 million
Total speakers: 125.4 million

Japanese is a unique "language isolate," meaning it is unrelated to other major language families. It features complex pitch accents and four main dialect categories.